Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell Villette v Ruth online

Following on from May’s mini season of online events taking a look at the friendship between two giants of Victorian literature, Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell, Elizabeth Gaskell’s House in Manchester and the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth have teamed up with The Portico and Manchester Metropolitan University to present a fourth talk, Elizabeth Gaskell and Charlotte Brontë – Villette v Ruth.

We’ve already explored this famous literary friendship, which developed after the two remarkable literary women first met in the Lake District in 1850. Charlotte’s ground-breaking debut novel Jane Eyre had been an instant classic in 1847, with Shirley following in 1849, while Elizabeth’s astounding debut Mary Barton had been well received in 1848. Elizabeth Gaskell then wrote The Life of Charlotte Brontë, first published in 1857 – the first biography to be written both by and about a woman writer, it remains a classic of the genre.

In this talk, we’ll find out more about Charlotte Brontë’s 1853 novel Villette, her last to be published during her lifetime, and Elizabeth Gaskell’s work of the same year, the controversial Ruth, first published in three volumes. This special partnership event explores the historical reality behind these two iconic women writers and the sexual status of women in Victorian life.

Brontë’s semi-autobiographical book Villette tells the story of Lucy Snowe as she flees England for a Belgian boarding school. Her tale of heartache and adversity, passion and the pain of unrequited love, contrasts with that of Ruth, a novel about an unmarried mother, which shocked contemporary readers and exposed the hypocrisy of Victorian sexual double-standards. It has been recognised as the first novel to make a ‘fallen woman’ the heroine and caused huge controversy for its author.

This event will invite you to delve into the original novels through three talks and a Q&A session – the speakers are Andrew Stodolny, learning officer at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Dr Emma Liggins, co-director of Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University and Dr Debbie Challis, creative producer at The Portico. There will also be the opportunity to see first editions of both Villette and Ruth live from The Portico Library.

For more fun from the Brontë Parsonage Museum, take a look at what writer-in-residence Ian Humphreys has lined up at Poetry at the Dusty Miller and more.

The event is being streamed online and you can book to watch live on the night or receive a link to the recording.